Question about elimination

[Dionysus]

If we get to the best-of-three championship series is there still the elimination factor since we lost one already—or is it a clean start for the series?

I are not too much baseball smart.

 

[LonghornCatholic]

Restart. Best 2 of 3.

 

[Dionysus]

Cool, thanks.

 

[Endust]

Yup, clean best of 3 series with none of our weekend starters available.

Championship series should be moved to the following week.

 

[Hu_Fan]

In reply to:

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[HausFrau]

A while back ABC wanted a guaranteed championship game to televise on particular day. That meant one team may be undefeated and one team had one loss. Sometimes the team with one loss won and was declared national champ. That didn't sit very well with the teams that had one loss - in their eyes the teams were even and one more game should be played. The powers to be got together and came up with the current format of two four team tournaments and the winners playing best 2 out of 3.

In 1983, when UT won it all, it was a true 8 team tournament. Everyone played everyone else. The two undefeated teams would meet mid tournament and it was always an exciting game. I liked that format much better.

 

[Dionysus]

In reply to:

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[HausFrau]

I don't know what year but yes it did happen to the Horns

 

[blonthang]

At first I thought this thread was going to be about some gastrointestinal problem --- go ahead, admit it, you thought so too,...anyway, yeah, it was 1989.

Prior to 1988 the CWS for a loooooooonnng time was a strict double-elimination tournament, you play until you lose 2, then you're out (edit: though for the first 3 years 1947-49 the finals was a best 2 of 3 series, changed in 1950 to a true double elimination that changed for about 10 years in 1988, now back to a double elimination to get to a finals of best 2 of 3).

CBS struck a deal to ensure 1 single final game on Sunday afternoon (not possible with a double elimination due to vagaries of teams coming out of the losers brackets and requiring extra games) for TV.

WhoEVER made it to Sunday (it would be only 2 teams), regardless of whether one was 3-0 and the other was 4-1, it was to be a winner take all.

So, in the 1989 CWS, Texas uses up its typical outstanding pitching staff to go 3-0, whilst Wichita State loses one early and has to come through the losers bracket to get to Sunday at 4-1:

1989
Florida St. 4 North Carolina 2
Wichita St. 3 Arkansas 1
Texas 7 Long Beach St. 1
Miami (FL) 5 LSU 2
Arkansas 7 North Carolina 3
Florida St. 4 Wichita St. 2
LSU 8 Long Beach St. 5
Texas 12 Miami (FL) 2
Wichita St. 8 Arkansas 4
LSU 6 Miami (FL) 3
Wichita St. 7 Florida St. 4
Texas 12 LSU 7
Wichita St. 12 Florida St. 9
Wichita St. 5 Texas 3

Of course Wichita State was using up its pitching staff too, but IIRC the matchup on that Sunday wasn't with our No. 1 or 2, but was against WSU's best pitcher.

So, for the almighty TV gods, the final W/L of 1989's CWS was:

1989
Wichita St.5-1
Texas 3-1
Florida St. 2-2
LSU 2-2
Arkansas 1-2
Miami (FL) 1-2
Long Beach St. 0-2
North Carolina 0-2

and WSU was the champion.

Let Texas play WSU again and odds were there would have been a different champion, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

FYI, UT had the CWS best hitter and best pitcher in:

Craig Newkirk, UT, 0.500 for the CWS
Kirk Dressendorfer, UT, 2-0, ERA 1.20

 

[Alpine]

Thanks for the great memories blonthang!

The same thing could have happened in the last year of the one-game format (2002). But that time Texas beat the team who came through the loser's bracket (SC).

 

[NBHorn7]

The only reason that game was played that day in 1989 was because of television. It poured rain all morning and everybody thought the game would be not be played that Saturday.

But CBS would not televise the game unless it was played that day at that time, so it was played.

If we it had been played the next day we could have used one of our regular starters.

 

[cnstoll58]

Scotty Bryant was our courageous pitcher, I was there on that gloomy day.

 

[TxnByBirth]

Scott Bryant was an absolute beast that season. He could mash at the plate and then come in to pitch and shut teams down.

 

[accuratehorn]

I was there too, one of our all-time best teams, clearly the favorite in Omaha. Very disappointing. Sometimes the Horns were clearly the best team there, and didn't win, and sometimes we weren't the best team there, but won.
We woulda-coulda-shoulda won it in 82, 83, 84 and 89, and only came away with one of those. Our best ever, IMO, was 82.

 

[Alpine]

I have long thought the 89 team was one of the best ever, and probably the best not to win a championship. The 04 team was pretty stout too though.

 

[sbmcruise]

I was there for the whole CWS in 2004 and thought we were clearly the cream of the field. I was stunned Cal State Fullerton won the championship series against us in 2 games.

 

[EasternHorn]

I agree, I was very confident in 2004. That one hurt.

 

[Alex_de_Large]

Although we didn't know much about Wichita St in '89, they have several future major leaguers on their team. The best was probably Pat Meares at SS. They also had Eric Wedge catching and Darrin Driefort (who didn't pitch against us) in the bullpen. The guy that started against us also played in the big leagues. Forget his name. We only had 1 player make the major leagues, Dressendorfer. Still would have been interesting if Shane Reynolds had gone to Omaha with us that year. I think Brian Dare, a former walk-on pitched most of the game for us after Bryant got pulled early. I still hate CBS.